If there’s one thing that I love to do in the kitchen, it’s experiment. It’s the thing that drives me to create recipes and to keep moving forward. I find that sometimes I’m at my best when it comes time to improvise, due to the fact that I just have to make a dish and don’t have time to run out for ingredients. Sometimes, you’ve gotta shake what your mama gave you.
In my case, what my mother gave me was over a dozen lemons from her lemon tree. I hate buying lemons sometimes, as I find they don’t seem to last as well as my mother’s do. Growing up with a lemon tree in the backyard does tend to spoil a girl when she’s looking for pure and simple acidity.
Bringing them home, Ari, of course, asked, “What are you going to do with all of them? Are you going to make lemon chicken?” Lemon chicken happens to be a delicious chicken dish my mother-in-law makes for Friday night that is so moist and juicy it simply falls off the bone. I’ve never gotten the recipe, and any time think I remember it, I totally blow it. But I am so much better when I am not trying to impersonate anyone. I come up with my one.
See this example: The other night, I worked hard to make my lasagna Florentine (for those who already love it, see the recipe here). Made the beschamel sauce, got the veggies ready, and worked hard to layer them and create a beautiful and hearty lasagna dish that I have become known for. Then it came time for dinner, and Ari looks at me and says, “What are we going to have with it?” Crap. Just like my husband to always question my kitchen authorita (because you have to RESPECT MY KITCHEN AUTHORITA!!!). All I could think of is a salad.
I had some baby beets, some chevre with honey, and baby spinach. I had a lemon and olive oil. It was time to put it together, and it only took five minutes. I served it to Ari, and he freaked out about how good this salad was – much more than the lasagna that took about an hour and a half to put together. I didn’t believe how good it was, until I tasted it.
All the flavors were there: the goat cheese, which had that slight taste of honey, accented the beets beautifully. The lemon brought a brightness to all of it and complemented the spinach’s strong flavor. The second time I made it, I added green onions – and it added a fresh tang. Next time, I’m bringing pine nuts to the party.
It made me realize that sometimes the best food items that come out of my kitchen are those that are pulled together at the last minute – Greek Orzo was one of those dishes that came together when I was scrambling to bring something to a Shabbat dinner, and is now a signature dish. Turkey Joes seemed to be another one of those dishes that I improvised and improved on with time, and when Ari just hears those words, he seems to sniff the air like a dog anticipating a treat.
Mind you, I do have plans about what I like to make in my kitchen – right now, my ambition is to create my own recipe for a goat cheese cheesecake for Shavuot and a key lime pie. But when it comes to creating food that is the stuff of legends, maybe I’m a bit better on the Top Chef route – which means taking a whole bunch of crazy stuff out of my fridge and cabinet and just going forward and working intuitively. After all, isn’t that sometimes what food is all about?
So, on that note, here the recipe for what I am calling the five-minute salad. Enjoy!
FIVE-MINUTE SALAD
3 cups baby spinach
3 baby beets or one whole beet, roasted (see Quick Tip 1)
2 green onions
Approximately 4 ounces goat cheese (see Quick Tip 2)
¼ cup pine nuts
Juice of ½ lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt
Place baby spinach in a bowl. Cut the beets into ½-inch pieces and add, and cut the green onions into ¼ inch pieces. Add to the bowl and top with pine nuts.
Crumble the goat cheese over the top of the salad. Juice the lemon over the salad, topping with the olive oil and salt to taste. Serve.
QUICK TIP 1: I buy my beets in the refrigerated section of Trader Joes and chop them at home, as beets can be super-messy business. EHow has a great link on how to roast, boil and even microwave beets so that you can add them into a salad. Here is the link: http://www.ehow.com/how_3093_cook-beets.html
QUICK TIP 2: I find that this recipe works with a goat cheese with honey, like my chevre with honey from above. If you can’t find it, regular goat cheese will work just as well.
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